Cleaning compositions are generally emulsions of greater or lesser concentration which, as is known, comprise in particular surfactants and care substances as well as oil components. On the part of the consumer, there is the desire for those preparations which are not only particularly skin-friendly, but remove especially oily soilings—in the widest sense also decorative cosmetics—rapidly and residue-free. In many cases, the manufacturer of such end preparations will refrain from mixing the individual feed materials itself; it will rather attempt to fall back on so-called “all-purpose compounds”. These are understood as meaning mixtures which can serve as the basis for very different end products. These mixtures are being increasingly supplied as microemulsions with diverse advantages. In the simplest case, the concentrated microemulsions are diluted to the application concentration by adding water and then themselves constitute the compositions. As a rule, however, they will be added with appropriate additives. Depending on the field of use of these “all-purpose compounds” in the form of a microemulsion, different requirements are set which, in the best case, are already satisfied by the microemulsion. In individual cases, further components have to be added which meet these requirements without destroying the positive features of the microemulsion.
In the area of application of cosmetic cleaning compositions such as, for example, shower gels, use is usually made of concentrated aqueous surfactant solutions, on which a whole series of sometimes very different requirements are nowadays placed. The compositions should                have the highest possible content of active substance,        at the same time be liquid or at least flowable,        have the lowest possible low-temperature cloud point,        be dermatologically acceptable, i.e. non skin-irritating, even in concentrated form,        be storage-stable,        contain the fewest possible additives such as, for example, preservatives.        
The point relating to dermatological acceptability deserves particular attention since consumer expectations have risen in recent years in this respect. Against the background of an increasing number of consumers who have sensitive skin, compositions which have advantageous properties in this regard are becoming more and more important. Consequently, it was an important part of the object to provide compositions which comprise the fewest possible preservatives. This allows the buyer and end-product manufacturers furthermore to incorporate preferred preservatives and additives of choice into the end product.
Although there is a large number of skin-friendly cleaning compositions on the market, there is nevertheless an intense interest, both by the raw material suppliers and the manufacturers, to find compositions which better satisfy the required objective than the products of the prior art. This applies in particular with regard to the simplest possible production method for such compositions.
After washing, skin and hair often feel rough and brittle, particularly if they have already been damaged by environmental influences. Moreover, hair can also be damaged by coloring or perming and is then often characterized by a dry, straw-like feel after hair washing.
It is therefore the aim of the cosmetic cleaning compositions to compensate for the loss of sebum and water in skin and hair that is caused by daily washing. The body care products should protect against environmental influences, in particular against sun and wind, and delay skin aging.
For this reason, conditioners are often used in shampoo compositions which are supposed to counteract these disadvantages. Shampoo compositions are therefore often found which comprise silicones as conditioners. However, these can attach irreversibly to the hair and in so doing for their part cause negative effects on the feel, in the worst case even problems during the coloring and perming of hair.
In many cosmetic preparations, oils and waxes are suitable as conditioning agents. However, these are nowhere near as marked in their effect as silicones. These oils and waxes can hitherto only be stabilized in the preparations in small amounts.
WO 2008155075 describes cosmetic preparations which comprise a microemulsion and at least one cationic polymer alongside non-alkoxylated surfactants. These preparations are used as conditioning agents in shampoo and hair treatment compositions.
A disadvantage of the microemulsions of the prior art is the low storage stability and often the problem of incorporation into the cleaning composition formulation without heating.
When providing microemulsions with anionic, cationic or amphoteric surfactants, it is also problematic that the oil components can be used only with very great difficulty since the surfactants are often too water-soluble and therefore scarcely have emulsifying properties.
DE 3534733 describes microemulsions, although the fraction of the solubilized oil components in the range from 0.5 to 3% by weight is low. The problem of incorporating larger amounts of oil also becomes clear in WO 9948473; here, the incorporation of just 0.5-1% by weight of oil is discussed.
It is known that oil-in-water emulsions which are prepared with nonionic emulsifiers often suffer from phase inversion upon heating, i.e. at elevated temperatures, the external, aqueous phase can become the internal phase. This process is generally reversible, meaning that, upon cooling, the original emulsion type is reformed again. Emulsions which have been prepared above the phase inversion temperature generally have a low viscosity and high storage stability.
For example, WO 98/40044 describes aqueous preparations of water-soluble surfactants which have lipid-surfactant mixed micelles with an average particle size of below 500 nm and thus appear bluish-white. The subject matter of WO 98/15255 is microemulsion gels of the oil-in-water type in which the oil droplets are stabilized in the water phase by associative thickeners.